The Walking Dead: Baby Judith Surviving to Adolescence Will Be "Pretty Difficult"

Next time you feel like complaining about your childhood, just remember The Walking Dead’s Little Ass-Kicker has it worse.

We should see baby Judith Grimes again in Season 5, since she’s still out there with Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and Tyreese (Chad Coleman). But look what this world does to kids. Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) has changed so much, and not really for the better. He even calls himself a “monster.” Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino) was “messed up” about walkers, and Carol thought Mika (Kyla Kenedy) was even worse — because she didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

What does this world hold for someone like Judith?

TWD showrunner Scott Gimple had a Q&A with fans, and one viewer asked an interesting philosophical question: “What kind of person would survive the best in an apocalypse: someone who is an adult when the apocalypse starts (like Rick), someone who is a child when the apocalypse starts (like Carl) or someone who was born during the apocalypse and doesn’t know the world before (like Judith)?”

Scott answered, “I would say if someone like Judith can make it to adolescence, I think they’re probably best equipped to survive. But making it to adolescence at that age is a pretty difficult thing in this world.”

Yeah, look at all the kids who have died so far, beyond Lizzie and Mika. There was that little girl right in the Season 1 premiere. Sophia. Penny. Michonne’s son, Andre. Morgan’s son, Duane. Meghan. Luke and Molly, presumably. They weren’t trained to survive in this world … actually, scratch that. Carol did try to train the kids, but Lizzie ended up using her newfound knife skills in an unexpected way.

Do you think Judith can survive into adulthood? If she gets to Terminus, how will that play out? Will they put her in a train car? Will they … you know? We’re dying for a Grimes family reunion, but what happens after that? If she survives Terminus, will we just have to keep seeing characters carry her everywhere? How practical is that, when we’ve seen how quickly the vulnerable — very young and very old — can perish?

We love having the hope of a baby around, but would they keep Judith alive just so fans wouldn’t get upset at the idea of killing a baby? They did just kill two other kids... It seems like Rick Grimes’s (Andrew Lincoln) girl will have to be safe at least until she’s reunited with her dad and brother, but it’s not clear what her life expectancy could be after that.

*Comic book spoilers begin*

In the books, baby Judith dies with her mother Lori during The Governor’s prison attack. She was already dead by the time they hit the road for D.C. in the books. So if they keep baby Judith around, it’s uncharted territory.

*Comic book spoilers end*

Do you think Judith will grow up in the zombie apocalypse and turn into the biggest badass of them all, or will she end up like Sophia, Mika and the others?